


Serious

by cubeofbutter



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Gilbert is a SIMP, Light Angst, Modern AU, Modern Era, cuteness, kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:15:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27217024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cubeofbutter/pseuds/cubeofbutter
Summary: After meeting Gilbert, Anne quickly begins dating him. But relationships are hard and Anne isn't sure if she wants the stress of a boyfriend right now.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	Serious

Anne shifted in her armchair at the library and took another sip of coffee. In her lap sat a beaten copy Pride & Prejudice turned to chapter eleven. She’d read the book half a dozen times, but she was feeling nostalgic lately and the adventures of Elizabeth Bennet never failed to cheer her up. A long-forgotten cup of coffee cooled on the floor next to her. Every so often, she’d absentmindedly brush a piece of hair back behind her ear, only for it to fall into her face a few minutes later.  
Anne was so absorbed in her book that she didn’t notice someone approaching her until he spoke.  
“Hey.”  
Her head snapped up to see an extremely attractive boy with a mess of dark brown curls, looking down at her.  
“Hi.”  
“What are you reading?”  
“Pride and Prejudice.”  
He smiled, revealing a dimple in one cheek. Her heart fluttered.  
“A classic. Is it for class?”  
“Oh, no. It’s actually my favorite book. Or one of them, at least. It’s definitely in the top ten.”  
“You like to read, huh?”  
“How could you tell?”  
They smiled at each other for a second, and Anne felt a warmth blooming in her chest.  
“I’m Gilbert.”  
“Anne. And that’s Anne with an E.”  
He raised one of his eyebrows, grinning, “Good to know.”  
Anne flushed, “It’s important! Anne looks so much prettier with an E at the end.”  
He laughed, “Well, Anne-with-an-E, I was wondering if I could get your number?”  
Anne hesitated, but one look into his chocolatey brown eyes crumbled her resolve. They exchanged numbers and she watched him walk away, butterflies fluttering inside her stomach.

Gilbert texted her a few hours later to ask her out on an official date. He showed up at her dorm’s building with a bouquet of random flowers tied together with rubber bands. When she asked him, he admitted that he didn’t have enough money to buy her a bouquet from the store, so he went into the woods next to campus and picked some flowers. Anne nearly kissed him right then and there.  
He took her to dinner at a small indian place she probably wouldn’t have found on her own. They stayed there for nearly two hours, just talking. Then they walked over to the local starbucks, which was miraculously open that late, and bought some hot chocolate. Gilbert laughed about how she asked for sprinkles on top, and Anne gave him a long lecture on how much better sprinkles made things.  
Gilbert walked her to her dorm building at the end of the date. They lingered outside the door for a few minutes, before Gilbert finally asked if he could kiss here. Somehow the fact that he asked made him all the more attractive, and she just pressed her lips to his in response.  
They started dating. He took her on picnics and to bookshops and on long walks through campus when the sun was just beginning to dip below the trees. They argued about books and movies and poetry and whether Katara belonged with Zuko or Aang. Anne learned that Gilbert wanted to be a doctor, his favorite color was green and he was afraid of heights. She told him her favorite flowers were sunflowers, (“Of course.” “What’s that supposed to mean?”) she liked memorizing poetry and she was a pretty terrible singer but she loved doing it anyway.  
Everything was going great for a few weeks. Except it wasn’t. Because now Anne had to worry. Worry about what it meant when he didn’t text back right away or when he canceled a date. Worry about his lab partner Winifred that she was most definitely not jealous of. Worry about arguments and if he found them fun like she did or just annoying. Worry about sex and whether she was any good, or when it was a good time to tell him that she grew up in foster care for most of her life and had a whole bundle of issues thanks to it.  
It was honestly kind of exhausting. And that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that she had to schedule time to work on homework around their dates and hangouts.  
Besides, she dated this guy, Roy, throughout most of high school, only for him to dump her over text right before she left for college. After that, Anne promised herself that she was going to be single for a while. She was going to focus on getting good grades and having fun and not worrying about a boyfriend. And now here she was, worrying about a boyfriend.

“I think I want to break up with Gilbert.”  
Cole looked up from his book, “What? Why?”  
“Yeah, I thought things were going well.” Diana added.  
Anne sighed, flopped backwards onto her bed and looked over at her roommate and best friend on the other bed in their dorm room.  
“I think it’s a terrible idea.” Cole said from the floor.  
“It is going well,” She said, ignoring Cole. “I just don’t know if I want a serious relationship right now. I mean, it's my first year of college, I kind of just want to have fun and focus on my studies and not worry about a boyfriend.”  
“That’s fair.”  
“No it's not.”  
“Cole.”  
“What? You have a ridiculously attractive, nice guy that you actually like, and you want to dump him?”  
“It’s not fair to keep leading him on when we want different things.”  
“It’s your decision, Anne. Whatever makes you happy.”  
Anne smiled at Diana, “Thank you, Diana. I really appreciate your support.”  
Cole rolled his eyes and mumbled something that Anne didn’t catch, but probably involved curse words.

Anne twisted her sweaty hands as she and Gilbert walked across campus. He was talking about how awful one of his professors was, but she wasn’t really listening.  
“Gilbert,” She interrupted, her stomach twisting itself into knots. “We need to talk.”  
He stopped walking and she could tell by the look on his face that he had an inkling of what was going to happen.  
“I think we should break up.”  
Gilbert stared at her, his eyes wide with hurt. “Why? Did...did I do something?  
“No! No, this isn’t about you at all.”  
“Are you seriously pulling out the ‘It’s not you, it’s me,’ line?” He snapped.  
“It’s true! You’re amazing. But you clearly want a serious relationship, and I just don’t know if I want that right now. You deserve somebody who wants the same thing as you.”  
Gilbert fell silent and just looked at her. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to change your mind?”  
Anne’s stomach twisted with guilt, “No, I don’t think so. I-I’m sorry Gilbert, I really am.”  
She walked away, heart heavy and resisted the urge to turn around and see if he was watching her.

The next day Anne woke up with her stomach in knots. She went through her usual morning routine, feeling almost numb. Walking to class, she saw the spot where she broke up with Gilbert and her heart sank.  
She couldn’t concentrate in english class. Every time she’d try to focus on whatever her professor was talking about, her mind drifted towards Gilbert and the wounded look on his face when she’d broken up with him.  
At the end of class, she looked down at her notebook where she was supposed to be taking notes and it was completely blank. Anne groaned and hit her head against her desk. She couldn’t understand why she was acting like this. If anything, She should be glad that she ended things with Gilbert. Now she didn’t have to worry about the pressure of a relationship. But even as she told herself that, her heart sank.  
Over the next couple days, she threw herself into her work in an effort to get her mind off Gilbert, but it didn’t seem to work. He kept appearing in her thoughts, no matter how much she tried not to think about him.  
When she was sitting in the campus coffee shop trying to study, she ended up listening in a conversation next to her. They were talking about a new horror movie that didn’t sound half bad. She made a mental note to tell Gilbert about it. And then she remembered they weren’t together anymore and got angry with herself for thinking that.  
And then she got a C on her math test. Anne hadn’t gotten below a B in years. That was the final straw. There was a party that weekend. She was going to go, have an amazing time, find someone to have meaningless sex with and finally put Gilbert behind her.  
Anne showed up at the party wearing a tight blue dress that Marilla would have a fit if she saw her in it. Diana had insisted on coming and kept looking at her with a mixture of concern and pity. It was driving Anne nuts, so she grabbed a cup of shitty alcohol and went to go make some bad decisions.  
She ended up just standing against a wall, sipping a cup of god-knows-what and watching drunk college kids attempt to dance. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a boy approach her and turned to look his way.  
He was cute in a stereotypical american boy kind of way, with his blonde hair, broad shoulders and large muscles.  
“Hey.”  
“Hey.”  
“I’m Billy, what’s your name, sweetheart?”  
She chafed at him calling her sweetheart, but she smiled anyway. “Anne.”  
He smiled and sidled up next to her, “That’s a pretty name.”  
Anne smiled politely, but she wasn’t liking how close he was to her, and how his eyes roved up and down her body.  
“How ‘bout I get you a drink?”  
“No thanks.”  
“Are you sure? Your cups runnin’ a little low.”  
“I’m good.”  
For a second, there was a flash of something darker, something angry, before he smiled again and leaned in closer, the smell of alcohol on his breath.  
“Alright, how about we go dance, then?”  
“I gotta go find my friend,” Anne made a move to leave, when Billy grabbed her arm.  
“Where are you going? We only just started talking.”  
“Let go of my arm, please.”  
Billy grinned, “Aw c’mon, don’t be like that.”  
He half dragged her towards him and nuzzled his face into her neck. Anne immediately wrenched her arm out of his hand and punched him directly in the nose. There was a sickening crack and then Billy was holding his hands over his face, blood leaking from his fingers.  
He started yelling about how she was a bitch and whore and now everybody was looking at them, so Anne took that as her cue to leave. She barreled her way through the crowd and out into the chilly night air.  
She sent a text to Diana saying that they needed to leave and then leaned the back of her head against the side of the building. Her teeth chattered, and she started to regret not bringing a jacket.  
Her mind kept drifting to the events of the night. Yes, she should have stuck with Diana, who was more than willing to pretend to be her girlfriend in front of creepy guys. But besides that, she thought about Billy. How many guys had she met like that? That was most of the boys at her high school. The only boys who’d really been different were Roy and Cole and Gil-  
She groaned and thunked her head against the wall.  
“Fuck.”

Anne sat in the dining hall, picking at her lunch while Cole and Diana were having an animated conversation about some show they’d both seen.  
She just picked at her mac n’ cheese, her stomach twisting itself into knots.  
“I think I might’ve fucked up by breaking up with Gilbert.”  
There was a beat of silence, then Cole glared at her. “Ya think?”  
“Cole!” Diana snapped.  
“It’s fine,” Anne sighed. “He’s right.”  
“What made you change your mind?”  
“I don’t know...I just, I just miss him. I can’t stop thinking about him. The other day, when we went to that party, this asshole tried to grab me, I ended up punching him in the nose, but the entire time I was thinking: I got a good one and I let him get away.”  
“You didn’t let him get away; you dumped him.”  
“Cole, I swear to god-”  
“I’m right!”  
Diana rolled her eyes at him and then turned towards Anne.  
“So, are you gonna text him?”  
“Absolutely not.”  
“What? Why?”  
Anne leaned forward to emphasize her point. “Diana, I broke up with him four days ago. Do you even know how pathetic it sounds for me to go to him and ask to get back together, after saying I didn’t want a serious relationship?”  
Cole stared at her, aghast. “This is not the time for your stupid pride, Anne. This is the time to suck it up so you can get that gorgeous piece of man-flesh.”  
“As much as I hate to agree with Cole, he’s right. I think if you’re regretting it this much, you should talk to him.”  
“Nuh uh. There’s no way he’ll say yes and I am not humiliating myself like that.”  
Diana saw Anne’s determined expression and knew that there was no point in arguing. She sighed, “You’re gonna regret it.”  
Anne ignored that and took a bite of her food.  
“I just want to say: I told you so.”  
“Oh, fuck off Cole.”

Anne spent the next couple days sulking and talking about how she was in the “depths of despair.” Eventually, even Diana got sick of it. She and Cole ended up dragging Anne to a party, despite her warnings about the previous time she’d tried this trick.  
But for the first hour or so, it actually wasn’t too bad. She ended up getting roped into playing beer pong with Cole, and they won by a landslide. Anne was still on that winning high when she saw him.  
Gilbert was standing off to the side next to a random table (Frat houses) and holding a drink. Her heart squeezed at the sight of him.  
Anne watched him for a minute, and then groaned. “Fuck it.”  
She poured herself a shot of vodka, downed it and then marched over to where Gilbert was standing.  
“Hey.”  
“Uh...hey.”  
“So, I know I was the one who broke up with you and said I didn’t want a serious relationship, and I don’t really have the right to be saying this, but I miss you like crazy and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, so if you weren’t super pissed at me, maybe you would want to go out with me again?”  
There was a beat of silence. Anne looked at Gilbert expectantly, her stomach churning.  
“You changed your mind? You actually want a serious relationship?”  
“Yes.”  
“With me.”  
“Yes.”  
“And you’re serious?”  
Anne nodded, her stomach churning.  
Gilbert stared at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then in one swift movement, he set his drink down, cupped her face and kissed her.  
Anne froze before melting into it, throwing one arm around his neck, pulling him closer while his hands settled on her waist. The party faded away into the background while she got lost in the feeling of his mouth on hers.  
When they finally broke apart, Gilbert was smiling, his face flushed. Anne couldn’t help but smile back.  
“Is that a yes?”  
Gilbert laughed, before leaning in to kiss her again.

**Author's Note:**

> AHHHHH!! My first actual finished fanfic!!  
> I honestly had so much fun writing this. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it. 🥰  
> Also sorry if Cole was a little out of character, I needed someone to call Anne out on her bs.


End file.
